As has been mentioned before, Montreal is very bilingual and welcoming of
english speakers. The language police do in fact exist however, and it is their
job to literally measure the size of lettering on english signs to ensure
compliance with the language laws. There are exceptions to the law such as
company names, ie. Starbucks does not need to translate their name into french (
I can't imagine what that would be ).
About a month ago three coffee shops with english names were firebombed by
a radical separatist, which was silly because while the store names were
english, the employees are all Quebecers. This was the work of a very very very
fringe group. In certain parts of Montreal you will also find anti anglo or anti
french graffiti. C'est la vie.
What does this mean to people going to the conference? Nothing at all. You
will all have fun. I am merely pointing out that there are issues regarding
language in the province, even if it is only a small minority perpetuating it.